U.S. President Barack Obama signs into law an $858 billion bill extending for two years Bush-era tax cuts in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Dec. 17, 2010. Obama overcame resistance from congressional Democrats and labor leaders to broker a tax-cut deal with Republicans, who'll take control of the House in January and gain Senate seats after last month's elections. Photographer: Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Barack Obama

Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly fell in December, restrained by concern that jobs will remain scarce in 2011.

The Conference Board's confidence index fell to 52.5, lower than the most pessimistic forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the New York research group showed Tuesday. Another report showed home values dropped more than economists projected.

The loss of confidence is at odds with a report from the University of Michigan that showed sentiment improved to a six-month high in December, and with data showing holiday spending posted the biggest gain in five years.

Federal Reserve policymakers said this month that "depressed" housing and high unemployment remained constraints on consumer spending, supporting their plans to expand record monetary stimulus.

"We should watch what consumers do and not what they say," said Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "If you looked at the confidence data, you wouldn't have looked for the pace of spending to accelerate as much as it has. Consumers are still very cautious and very nervous about where the labor market is headed."

Retailers' 2010 holiday sales jumped 5.5 percent for the best performance since 2005, said MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which measures retail sales by all payment forms. That compared with a 4.1 percent gain a year earlier. The numbers include Internet sales and exclude automobile purchases.

The median forecast for confidence, based on a survey of 61 economists, projected confidence would increase to 56.3. The Conference Board revised the November figure to 54.3 from a previous estimate of 54.1. Projections ranged from 53 to 60. The index averaged 96.8 during the last economic expansion, which ended in December 2007.

Tuesday's report stands in contrast to preliminary figures from a Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan report that showed sentiment climbed this month as the share of Americans citing an improvement in current conditions climbed to the highest level since January 2008.

"The fact confidence moved lower is a bit surprising given the other data we have observed for the month," said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York. "Month-to-month changes in confidence are not well correlated with those in spending. Reports from retailers as well as data on spending have been upbeat. We would give those more weight."

According to the Conference Board, the share of consumers who said jobs are hard to get increased to the highest level since February.

Those expecting more jobs to become available in the next six months reached the lowest level since July, and the proportion who expected their incomes to rise over the next six months also fell.

Employers added 951,000 workers to payrolls in the first 11 months of the year, according to figures from the Labor Department. December data are due Jan. 7.

The gains haven't been large enough to reduce unemployment, which was at 9.8 percent last month after finishing 2009 at 10 percent.

President Obama on Dec. 17 signed a $858 billion bill that extends for two years Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels, continues expanded jobless insurance benefits to the long-term unemployed for 13 months and reduces payroll taxes during 2011.

Some Americans are more willing to make big-ticket purchases. Car sales in November rose to a 12.26 million unit pace, the highest since the government's cash-for-clunkers program in August 2009, industry data showed this month. Demand over the past three months is the strongest in two years.

"We have a high degree of confidence that 2011 is going to be a stronger sales year," George Pipas, Ford Motor Co.'s sales analyst, said in a Dec. 20 briefing with reporters in Dearborn, Mich., where the company is based. "We're a whole lot better off than we were a year ago."